


Wake Me Up

by Emmalyne_Amell



Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Mass Effect 2, Shenko - Freeform, Slow Burn Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-16 13:47:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7270762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmalyne_Amell/pseuds/Emmalyne_Amell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cerberus agent Hayley Shepard never thought she'd be working on a mission with the legendary Commander Kaidan Alenko.  She also never expected that she would fall in love.  A slow burn AU Shenko.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wake Me Up

**Author's Note:**

> This is an alternate universe in which Shepard never joined the Alliance, but works for Cerberus instead. Kaidan Alenko was made the first human Spectre, and also was the one to defeat Saren and become the hero of the Citadel. The events take place during the same timeline as Mass Effect 2. I do not own Mass Effect or any of its characters.

  
Not for the first time in her life, Hayley Shepard awoke to the sound of gunfire.  
    

The first time she had had a similar rude awakening had been many years ago, on Mindoir.  There had also been terrified screams, angry shouting, and the smell of fires burning.  A troop of Batarian slavers had attacked the colony, abducting Hayley’s friends, her neighbors, and killing those they had deemed unworthy of fetching a high price on the slave market- including her parents.  
    

Hayley had waited and watched in hiding as the Batarians pillaged her home, and she stayed hidden for hours after their ship had left.  She was the only one left alive when the other ship came, one filled with armored soldiers.  They found her, covered her in blankets and gave her water to drink, as they proceeded to put out the last of the remaining fires that the slavers had left behind.  One soldier- Hayley could not remember his name- had comforted her and talked to her for a while, asking her simple questions like her name and her age, and thankfully did not demand answers about what she had witnessed.  Then he’d gently escorted her to the ship, assuring her that she would be safe now, that everything was going to be okay.    
    

That was how Hayley ended up with Cerberus.    
    

She owed them her life, and ever since that day on Mindoir, she’d dedicated herself to their cause.  No one else cared that an outer colony filled only with humans had been ransacked by pirates- not the Council, not even the Alliance.  Only Cerberus had been the ones to come and save her, to offer her a new home.  They hadn’t even pressured her to join them.  Hayley had insisted on being trained, in both hand-to-hand combat and weapons training.  And she was a fast learner.    
    

Now, nearly fifteen years later, Hayley had been assigned to work at the topmost, highest secured base in an undisclosed location for a project simply known as “Lazarus.”  It was more of a lab than a base, and most of the Cerberus operatives working were scientists and medical staff.  Hayley had been assigned as head of security, second only to ex-Alliance member, Jacob Taylor.  Lazarus had been in progress for two years now, and it had been two very quiet years.  Too quiet, for Hayley’s taste.    
    

Until now.  
    

The gunfire was followed just minutes later by a loud explosion, and Hayley, already out of bed and on her feet, moved even faster, barely taking the time to jump into a pair of jeans and heavy boots, still wearing the black tank top she had slept in.  She took the pistol from her nightstand and slid it into the back of her waistband, then snatched the assault rifle from its shelf (an M-8 Avenger, her favorite).  She took only a second to do a thermal clip check on the rifle before firing it up and heading toward the door.  
    

Hayley was met with confusion and shouts as several Cerberus agents ran down the hallway, away from the main block of the facility.  She tried to make sense of what was going on, but there was no visible clue that she could see to cause such a disturbance.    
    

“What’s going on?” Hayley shouted at one of the passing runners.  
    

Without stopping, the man yelled back, “The mechs have gone rogue!”    
    

 _What?_   That made no sense.  Determined to see for herself what was happening, Hayley fought against the frantic crowd and ran toward the center of the facility.  The closer she came, the fewer people she came across, and after running through a long series of twisting and turning hallways, she nearly tripped and fell over something blocking a doorway.    
    

It was a body.  The unseeing eyes of a woman, one of the scientists, stared up at Hayley, her chest and abdomen riddled with holes.  Hayley cringed, bracing herself and aiming her weapon as she entered the room.    
    

 _So many dead._    
    

It was one of the science labs, a large room with sterile white walls, and long tables set up with computer monitors and equipment.  Broken glass littered the floor, though not as much as the lifeless remains of the medical staff.  Hayley knelt down to briefly examine one of the bodies, and saw similar fatal wounds that she had seen on the woman.  The burning black holes suggested laser weapons, confirming that these people were indeed killed by mechs.  
    

Hayley heard more gunfire off in the distance, and she raced out of the lab and further down the hall.  The sounds grew louder, and Hayley heard a familiar voice shouting expletives from just inside the main hall of Block D.  She entered to find a group of LOKI mechs firing at a woman who had taken cover behind a heavy, upturned metal desk.    
    

“Miranda!”    
    

The woman, who had long, dark brown hair and a perfectly sculpted figure which fit becomingly into a skin-tight jumpsuit, stopped shooting briefly to turn at the sound of Hayley shouting her name.  “Shepard!  Get into cover!”    
    

Hayley narrowly dodged a series of incoming shots, firing her own weapon at one of the mechs, and just managing to blow its head off before sliding into cover next to Miranda.  
    

“What the hell is going on?” Hayley asked, yelling to be heard over the gunfire.  
    

“The mechs have been hacked,” Miranda replied.  “It was Wilson, that bastard.  He betrayed us.”  
    

“Wilson?”  Hayley didn’t bother to hide her surprise.  Why would the chief medical officer do this?  Deciding to save that question for later, Hayley asked, “So what’s the plan?”  
    

“We need to get to the shuttles.  Fast.  Help me finish off the last of these mechs.”  
    

Hayley nodded.  Miranda threw a barrage of powerful biotic energy at the remaining drones, lifting them up into the air, and Hayley aimed and fired at the helplessly dangling machines.  They dropped to the ground with a loud crash, the last of the remaining attackers.  
    

“The shuttles are clear on the other end of the base,” Hayley pointed out.  “How are we going to get passed all those mechs?”  
    

Miranda climbed up on top of the desk, then reached up to grab an air vent on the ceiling.  She yanked it down and tossed the vent on the floor.    
    

“This way,” Miranda instructed, pulling herself up with the strength and agility of a gymnast and disappearing into the shaft.    
  

 Hayley groaned.  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”    
    

“Come on, Shepard.”  
    

They crawled through the air shaft for what felt like an eternity.  Drenched with sweat and growing increasingly claustrophobic, Hayley called ahead to Miranda, “You sure you know where you’re going?”  
    

“We’re nearly there,” Miranda assured her.  At last, they reached their destination, and the two women dropped down from the ceiling into a small room.  It was filled with crates, an old supply room, Hayley figured.    
    

“Through here.”  Miranda slowly pushed open the door, aiming her pistol into the next room before motioning Hayley to follow.  Hayley had never seen this part of the facility before, and wasn’t sure what to expect.  It looked like they were on some sort of loading dock, filled with even more large crates.  There didn’t appear to be any mechs in sight, but Hayley still held her Avenger at the ready, just in case.    
    

They made it to the shuttle entrance, and Miranda closed the door behind them.  “Now what?” Hayley asked, lowering the rifle to her side and combing her fingers through her short, dark hair, which was sticky with sweat.    
    

“Now we wait,” Miranda said.  “Alenko should be on his way.  Hopefully Jacob is with him.”  
    

Hayley started at Miranda’s casual mention of Project Lazarus’s main subject.  “Commander Alenko?  You mean... it _worked_?  He’s _alive_?”  
    

Miranda nodded.  “I contacted him through radio coms when all this started.  He’ll be here soon, I hope.”  
    

Hayley stared at Miranda in a sort of daze, unable to hide her awe.  The whole point of Lazarus had been to bring a dead man back to life, and although Cerberus had unlimited resources, as well as the top medical officers and scientists that humanity had to offer, Hayley had never truly believed that they could do it.    
    

“All right, so, we wait.  But where are we going once we leave here?”  
    

“To see the Illusive Man,” Miranda replied.  “I’m sorry, Shepard, I can’t say more.  It’s classified information from here on out.”  
    

Hayley’s jaw clenched, but before she could argue, the door to the shuttle entrance opened.  She wasn’t sure who or what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t the man she saw standing in the doorway.

The look of shock on Wilson’s face when he saw Miranda and Hayley standing there was almost comical.  Hayley’s fingers involuntarily flexed against the gun at her side, and her eyes jumped to Miranda.  The Australian’s beautiful face barely flinched.    
    

“Miranda!” Wilson exclaimed.  “But you were-“  
    

His sentence was cut off by a bullet to the head.  As Wilson’s lifeless form crumpled to the floor, Miranda lowered her pistol and finished it for him.  “Dead?” she said, sardonically.  
    

 _Okay_ , Hayley had to admit, _that was kind of cool._  
    

Two more figures appeared in the doorway, their guns raised and aimed at Miranda.  Instinctively, Hayley lifted her own weapon, ready for a fight.  One of the men was Jacob Taylor, and Hayley was conflicted between relief that he was still alive, and defensive at the fact that he was training his gun on the chief officer of the project.    
    

The man next to him...  
    

 _My God._  
    

It was him. Commander Kaidan Alenko, in the flesh.  The first human Spectre, Savior of the Citadel.  The man who had stopped a Reaper from destroying the galaxy.    
    

The man who had died, two years ago, and was now standing alive and well in front of them.     
    

Hayley had seen his image on news vids, but they hardly did him justice.  His coal black hair was slicked back, and his eyes were a deep, golden brown.  He had a shadow of a dark beard on his square jaw, and his face was much more handsome in person.  He was tall, muscular, and built like a soldier.    
    

He sure looked damn good for a dead man.    
    

“Miranda, what the hell are you doing?” Jacob demanded, bringing Hayley back to the current situation at hand.    
    

Miranda seemed unperturbed by Jacob’s distress.  “My job,” she replied.  “Wilson betrayed us all.”    
    

“You sure about that?” Kaidan said, his gaze and weapon both trained on Miranda.  “You could have at least kept him alive for questioning.”  
    

“Then he would have killed us all the first chance he had.  I know what I’m doing, Commander.  Wilson was a traitor.  Now he’s dead.  We can stand here talking about it, or we can get the hell out of here.”  
    

After a moment’s silent deliberation, both Jacob and Alenko lowered their guns, and Hayley followed suit.  Jacob seemed to notice her for the first time, and he stepped forward, placing a hand on her shoulder.  
    

“Hayley, sure am glad to see you,” he said with a smile.  “You all right?”  
    

She nodded.  “I’ll be a hell of a lot better once we get out of here.  We ready to go?”    
    

“Let’s get you on that shuttle, Commander,” Miranda stated.  “My boss would like to speak with you.”  
  

 “Hang on a sec.”  
    

The others turned to look at Kaidan, who was standing defensively with his arms crossed over his broad chest.  “Your boss- you mean the Illusive Man?  I know you’re with Cerberus.  How am I supposed to trust any one of you?”  
  

Hayley glanced over at Miranda as the woman emitted a heavy sigh.  “Oh, Jacob.  Your conscience got the better of you, I see.  I should have known.”  
    

Jacob frowned.  “Lying to him isn’t the way to get him to join our cause, Miranda.”  
    

“Look,” Hayley interjected, “Can we please talk about this after we leave the place that’s crawling with killer mechs?”  
    

“What about other survivors?” Kaidan said.  “Shouldn’t we go back and search?”  
    

“Everyone else is dead, or as good as,” Miranda insisted.  “We need to get you out of here, Kaidan.  We didn’t bring you back just so you could die again.”  
    

“She’s right, Commander,” Jacob said.  “I know this must be hard for you, but for now, you’ve got to trust us.  Let’s get you out of here.  After that, it’s up to you.”    
    

Kaidan looked at all of them one at a time, his gaze landing last on Hayley.  She could see the suspicion in his eyes, and she didn’t blame him once bit.  The Alliance and Cerberus weren’t exactly the best of friends.  But finally, Commander Alenko seemed to accept the situation, and he turned back to Miranda.  
    

“All right.  Let’s get out of here.  I’ve had enough of this station to last a lifetime.”  
    

“Or two, in your case,” Miranda smirked.    
    

The four of them entered the shuttle.  Thankfully, Miranda had enough knowledge of spacecraft to set the vehicle on autopilot, and the four of them sat in the cabin waiting to arrive at their destination.  Hayley sat silently while Miranda and Jacob interviewed Kaidan, making sure that all of his memories were in tact, and filling him in on any details he had missed.    
    

While the other three passengers conversed, Hayley found herself deep in thought.  How many of their people had died that day, thanks to Wilson?  Like Alenko, she wondered if any survivors had been left behind.  A stab of guilt hit her in the gut, but she quickly brushed it aside.  What mattered was that they had gotten the commander out safely.  Thank goodness Jacob and Miranda had survived as well, since they had way more intel than Hayley about the Illusive Man’s plans.    
    

Which she was still a bit sour about, to be honest.  Hayley had never actually met the Illusive Man, and she knew that while she was a trusted Cerberus soldier (one of the best, in fact), she was not ranked high enough to be on the inside of all of their plans.  Hopefully now, after all that had happened, that was about to change.    
        
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
   


End file.
